AN omnibus stopped at the corner of one of the London streets to pick up passengers. As the writer got in, a lady inquired of the conductor the way to a certain quarter of the Metropolis. He civilly gave her directions in reply, adding that his omnibus would take her there. She shook her head unbelievingly, in spite of his repeated assurance that it was so, and remained where she was, still waiting at the corner of the street.
The omnibus moved on, when the conductor, rather vexed, observed to the writer, “They won’t believe what we say.”
“Just like man with the Scriptures, the Word of God,” was the reply to him. God speaks plainly in His word, and gives full directions as to the way to heaven, and moreover, has provided the means to take us there. But man will not believe God nor trust in His provision, which is in Christ.
Later in the same evening the same passenger, who, unlike the lady, did believe the omnibus was going in the direction he desired to go, and which took him there according to the conductor’s word, met a friend out walking. This gentleman is an earnest preacher of the gospel. He told him how, on the previous Sunday, he was announcing the gospel to a company of men on board a ship in the London Docks, when one man declared he did not believe a word of it. Our friend was led to the scripture and preached. “Shall their unbelief make the truth of God of none effect?” Man’s unbelief does not alter the truth of God, which, blessed be His name, remains ever the same.
That truth is, that God has raised up His Son from the dead, the One whom man crucified and slew, and “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus [this risen Christ], and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)).
This blessed One has borne the judgment due to the sinner, and God has accepted this; so that now everyone that believes on Him, risen and at His right hand, shall be saved. The unbelieving remain under the judgment of God.
The infidel listening to our friend gradually quieted down under the effect of the Word of God brought home by the Spirit, and it was hoped he may have been brought to believe the truth. If so, it was to his soul’s salvation.
And so it is for anyone who reads these lines. UNBELIEF is the damning sin.
FAITH, or believing God, is the saving principle. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
J. S. C.